1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an exceptional road-condition warning device, system and method for a vehicle.
2. Related Art
Existing warning systems for a vehicle mainly use a radar and a camera as sensing elements, and include Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake (CWFAB), Automatic Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), Blind Spot Information System (BSIS) and Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS). Statistics by the National Police Agency (Taiwan) indicate that causes of traffic accidents leading to immediate death or death within 24 hours from the time the accident occurred include 14 types, including illegal overtaking, reverse driving, loss of control due to over-speed and illegal turning, among which up to ⅓ of the traffic accidents were caused by unawareness of exceptional road conditions, for example, occurred in road sections where various behaviors and events that may influence normal driving exist, such as average speed reduction, obstacles, bumps, dangerous downhill and frequent acceleration and deceleration, which shows the importance of warning of exceptional road conditions to safety of driving.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 7,679,499 published on Mar. 16, 2010, being a warning system proposed by Yasufumi Yamada, it is detected whether a driving operation of a specific driver is identical to a dangerous driving behavior previously recorded, and the driver is warned not to repeat the dangerous driving behavior. This patent discloses a driving behavior database, for recording previous dangerous driving behaviors of a specific driver in the road section. It is determined through comparison whether a current location of the vehicle is close to a dangerous driving historical record in the database, and if yes, a warning is provided in advance.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 7,057,532 published on Jun. 6, 2006, being a road safety warning system and method proposed by Michael Shafir and Yossef Shiri, a driver is alerted of an impending traffic sign such as no right turn or a speed limitation, it is judged whether a current control behavior of the driver complies with safety codes, and if not, a warning is provided to the driver. In the system disclosed by this patent, the traffic sign data is stored on-board the vehicle, and the content may be updated by a radio frequency (RF) transceiver.
According to US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0207787 published on Aug. 19, 2010, being a system and method for alerting drivers to road conditions proposed by J. Corey Catten, it is judged by using map information and a vehicle sensing device whether the speed limit or average speed on a specific route changes. Generally, if a feature of change in speed limits for different road sections of a specific route is found from the map information, a warning event is formed. If a vehicle sensor finds that the average speed is different from the speed limit for the road section due to an event such as construction or traffic accident, a report is provided to the back end. If the vehicle monitoring device finds that the vehicle speed exceeds the average speed or speed limit, a warning is provided.